New UNHCR field office in northern Ecuador
Briefing Notes, 14 March 2008
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 14 March 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR this week opened a new office in the north of Ecuador, bringing to three the number of its field offices along the Colombian border. The new location was officially opened on Tuesday in the presence of provincial authorities in the city of Esmeraldas, on Ecuador's Pacific Coast. It will serve as a base for UNHCR help thousands of refugees in the province and along the coast.
According to initial results from a UNHCR survey presented last month to the government in Quito, there are about 60,000 Colombians in need of international protection in Ecuador's northern provinces. These are people, most of them families with children, who have left Colombia fearing for their lives or safety because of the internal armed conflict. An estimated 10,000 of them have taken refugee in the province of Esmeraldas, one of the most under-developed regions of Ecuador. UNHCR aims to support local development at the same time as it assists refugees, for example with micro-credit loans, training programmes and help for small businesses that benefit the entire community.
Most of the refugees in this part of Ecuador come from Colombia's Pacific Coast. Esmeraldas Province borders the southern Colombian region of Nariño, which last year recorded the worst rate of forced displacement inside the country. According to the Colombian government, more than 22,000 people fled their home in Nariño during 2007. This represents more than 10 percent of all new cases of forced displacement inside Colombia.
The humanitarian situation in Nariño this year continues to be a cause for concern. The region suffers from some of the worst is of violence and persecution in Colombia. All these factors contribute greatly to the risk of more forced displacement, but in some cases people do not even have the option to flee. Some communities are cut off from the rest of the world because of an increasing number of landmines planted by irregular armed groups.
UNHCR works with other UN agencies and international organizations to coordinate a coherent response in favour of the civilian population that will contribute to long-term solutions for a permanent peace in Colombia.
A report on the pilot Global Needs Assessment - meeting the needs of refugees and others of concern to UNHCR globally.
Strengthening Protection Capacity Countries:
A blueprint for planning and action that gives donors an accurate picture of what is needed.
Tools and strategies to strengthen the capacity of states to receive and protect refugees. This project is now active across five continents.
Colombia: Life in the Barrios
After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.
Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.
UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected – including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.
Colombia: Life in the Barrios
Indigenous people in Colombia
There are about a million indigenous people in Colombia. They belong to 80 different groups and make up one of the world's most diverse indigenous heritages. But the internal armed conflict is taking its toll on them.
Like many Colombians, indigenous people often have no choice but to flee their lands to escape violence. Forced displacement is especially tragic for them because they have extremely strong links to their ancestral lands. Often their economic, social and cultural survival depends on keeping these links alive.
According to Colombia's national indigenous association ONIC, 18 of the smaller groups are at risk of disappearing. UNHCR is working with them to support their struggle to stay on their territories or to rebuild their lives when they are forced to flee.
UNHCR also assists indigenous refugees in neighbouring countries like Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil. UNHCR is developing a regional strategy to better address the specific needs of indigenous people during exile.
Indigenous people in Colombia
Panama's Hidden Refugees
Colombia's armed conflict has forced millions of people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in other countries in the region.
Along the border with Colombia, Panama's Darien region is a thick and inhospitable jungle accessible only by boat. Yet many Colombians have taken refuge here after fleeing the irregular armed groups who control large parts of jungle territory on the other side of the border.
Many of the families sheltering in the Darien are from Colombia's ethnic minorities – indigenous or Afro-Colombians – who have been particularly badly hit by the conflict and forcibly displaced in large numbers. In recent years, there has also been an increase in the numbers of Colombians arriving in the capital, Panama City.
There are an estimated 12,500 Colombians of concern to UNHCR in Panama, but many prefer not to make themselves known to authorities and remain in hiding. This "hidden population" is one of the biggest challenges facing UNHCR not only in Panama but also in Ecuador and Venezuela.
Panama's Hidden Refugees
Angelina Jolie Returns to Ecuador
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie returned to northern Ecuador for the first time in eight years, meeting refugees from Colombia.
Colombia: Indigenous People Under Threat
Violence in parts of Colombia is threatening the existence of the country's indigenous people. This is the tale of one such group, the Tule.
Colombia: Giving women strength
In the volatile southern Colombian region of Putumayo, forced displacement remains a real and daily threat. Indigenous women are especially vulnerable. A project by UNHCR focuses on helping women to adapt and learn about their rights while they are displaced.
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